Letters to the Editor - June 3, 2014

Tuesday

Jun 3, 2014 at 3:15 AM

To the editor: Finally, a glimmer of reality: Liz Hagner’s “A grade of F” letter published in the May 28 paper. It is the insurance company’s choice which facilities and providers are covered by it’s plan. Translated, it is not our President demonstrating delicatessen style inclusion or exclusion from the Affordable Care Act network.

Lisa Boesch

Durham

To the editor: If you truly want to find the source of the problem with VA medical services to wounded veterans, look in the mirror, not in the paper. Few if any non-veterans, having visited a VA hospital, would send their loved ones there or themselves.

This is not a matter of benign neglect, it results like many maladies in our society from willful public denial. As a Vietnam veteran with disabilities from that service, I am in great admiration and appreciation of the staff at the VA hospital in Manchester. They perform heroically under desperate conditions providing for the veterans best they can. But the facility presents as something right out of the 30s if that. And bless Senator Jeanne Shaheen for leading the effort to have satellite centers set up at other locations in her home state to vastly improve access statewide.

The truth is that especially with no military draft, the public barely owns the wars we fight and even less the truth of their results. The vast majority of veterans return and go on to lead productive, normal lives. As a former community college president, I was chagrined to discover strong advocacy for wounded veterans could lead to the assumption that all veterans were somehow deficient, partially explaining the high rate of veteran unemployment. That is not the case and any employer should perceive the leadership, skill sets and work ethic that comes with military service major pluses for the applicant.

Make no mistake, if the AARP for example, spent as much money lobbying for veterans as they do for social security, you would have facilities and services for veterans of which we all could be proud. But until the public takes full responsibility for the veterans of the wars we fight — wins, losses and draws — the full scope and quality of services offered them will remain less than deserved.

Wayne M. Burton

Durham

To the editor: I have never had much use for the Foster except for bird cage droppings but after your May 30th headlines ... Police arrest woman shooting up heroin at catholic school ... I jumped to read the story and found that it did not involve the school or teachers or anything on a religious level. Double shame on you Fosters for your insensitivity.